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In Dancehall and Reggaetón’s Evolution, MCA Chicago Charts a Global Awakening

Curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, "Dancing the Revolution" examines movement and music as languages of ritual and resistance in the Caribbean and its diaspora.

Anchored in Afro-Caribbean musical traditions and ritual practices, reggaetón emerged through the circulation of sounds between Jamaica, Panama and Puerto Rico, evolving from reggae and dancehall into a Spanish-language form via Panama’s reggae en español before taking shape in the underground scenes of 1990s San Juan. Built around the dembow rhythm and distributed through informal mixtapes, it was initially criminalized and tied to working-class communities, even as it functioned as a political tool of creative expression, cultural resistance and collective identity. By the early 2000s, artists like Daddy Yankee propelled it into the mainstream—a trajectory that in recent years has expanded globally. Figures such as Bad Bunny dominate streaming platforms, emerging as defining cultural icons for a new generation, as the genre continues to evolve from subculture to global phenomenon while retaining its embodied, communal roots on the dance floor.

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An ambitious exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago now attempts, for the very first time, to explore the historical evolution of dancehall and reggaetón as a cultural movement and as powerful visual and political frameworks that eventually influenced contemporary art. Curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, “Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón” draws its title from the idea of RPMs—revolutions per minute—a metaphor for musical tempo, cultural transformation and political protest, linking it to historic events such as Puerto Rico’s “Verano del 19,” during which reggaetón’s iconic dance forms became acts of political defiance on the steps of the San Juan Cathedral, where LGBTQ and feminist activists led perreo combativo, or “combative twerking.”

Bringing together more than 40 international artists—including Isaac Julien, Edra Soto, Alberta Whittle, Carolina Caycedo, supakid and Lee “Scratch” Perry—the exhibition traces different moments in the evolution of dancehall history and culture, underscoring the role of dance in reclaiming public and communal space: as a moment of community manifestation that fuels a sense of belonging, as much as a set of revolutionary practices for collective liberation grounded in the struggle against colonial and neocolonial control.v

When we spoke following the press preview, Acevedo-Yates said that organizing an exhibition at the intersection of popular music and contemporary art had long been a dream of hers. “People often think of it purely as entertainment, as something about dancing, which of course it is, and I don’t want to foreclose that reading, but it also has a political dimension. It is a political space,” she told Observer. “These genres challenge the status quo, they push against conservative discourses, and they have a long history, even going back to the colonial era.” It’s a subject, she believes, that could be expanded much further.

While the show is groundbreaking within the art system, it builds on an existing body of academic research, particularly from Caribbean scholars who have long framed dancehall and reggaetón as performance practices rooted in Black Atlantic culture. What distinguishes the show is its placement of these traditions within the context of contemporary art, expanding a dialogue that has only occasionally surfaced in publications and prior curatorial efforts. “There have been some precedents, artists like Miguel Luciano appear in reggaetón-related publications, and others have been included in similar contexts, but I grew up in San Juan, and I’m deeply familiar not only with the genres themselves, but also with artists engaging with them,” Acevedo-Yates noted.

The exhibition traces the historical roots of these music genres, deeply linked to Caribbean ancestral traditions and spirituality as much as to working-class experience. For Acevedo-Yates, it was important to include artists whose work originates outside conventional art circuits, shaped instead by belief and a more instinctive understanding of music as a spiritual force. “I think that’s incredibly relevant today. Music reaches everyone; it’s a language that speaks directly to the spirit.”

At the start of the show, there are two symbolically resonant yet imaginatively direct works by Everald Brown—a carpenter in daily life but also a musician and painter deeply engaged with both Rastafarianism and reggae. In Nyabingi Hour, he depicts a Nyabinghi groundation, a Rastafari ceremony lasting days and nights, centered on drumming, chanting, dance and........

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